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Some cases in the Supreme Court involve controversies of enormous immediate importance with little potential for effecting doctrinal constitutional change. Other cases seem of minimal moment, but call into question basic doctrinal issues whose resolution might have broad and serious effects. Goldstein v. California falls into the second category. The obvious and dramatic limitation that Goldstein places on the scope of the Copyright Act may have obscured its more subtle revisions of constitutional doctrine in other areas. For Goldstein not only defines the spheres of federal and state competence for copyright legislation; it also reinterprets precedents on preemption and supremacy principles that forebode substantial revision of these basic areas.